Create 'acts', not 'ads'

I work in advertising. By mere extension, I make ads. And I hate most. Not being smug or dulled by familiarity. Just, keeping track of ads feels like a professional hazard. But, ‘acts’? Now, those are right up my alley. Instead of volunteering a definition, I’ll simply tell you about those that are. To me, anyway.

Take Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel ‘Crime and Punishment’. Raskolnikov, a broke, desperate student living in a tiny apartment, robs and kills an unscrupulous, rather unpleasant moneylender. He’s serving a higher purpose, ridding the world of inferior vermin (like her) and putting the money to better use (like his).

Initially he sits self-assured in this oversimplification. Over time, the irrefutable inhumanity of the act leaves him wracked with grief, guilt and paranoia.

Once he finds a love he can call his own, however, the courage and salvation he finds in confessing manifests itself.

One of my favourite films has been Harold Ramis ‘Groundhog Day’. It’s a story about Phil, an egotistical weatherman, stuck with an assignment, in a town, surrounded by colleagues, all of this loathsome to him. Worse still, stuck in time, he wakes up every day, to day 1, an eternal damnation.

Tired of perpetual despair, he starts to use his infinite time - takes piano lessons, French lessons, even befriends a homeless man.

Using the gift of hindsight to help others, he starts to transform, finding meaning in his predicament. And when he falls in love, the clock is reset so he can find meaning in his life.

Drawing from my greatest love of all, music, David Bowie’s “Oh! You pretty things”. Given the cultural wave of purposelessness amidst British youth then, he proposed a new wave in humanity. With lyrics like

The earth is a bitch

We've finished our news

Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use

All the strangers came today

And it looks as though they're here to stay,

the song heralded the uselessness of the human race in favour of an alliance between invading aliens and present day youth.

Over time the song lost its appeal because of an inherent lack of human empathy. After all, love and a shared humanity breeds purpose and strength.

3 different stories. 3 different acts. One human truth. One insight. Running in many of Advertising’s acts- in Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’, P&G’s ‘Thank You Mom’, The Ad Council’s ‘Love has no labels’ and even Save the Children’s Syrian campaign.

I even stumbled upon a hilarious Act by BBDO that subverts it!

Which brings me to what ads are.

A dystopian theory on human understanding proposed by Friedrich Nietzsche sets the context for the 3 acts.

The profound dilemma of man in his serving self versus serving another, results in a profound dissatisfaction and escape. He leaps towards a new world where God and values are dead, man and morality are contempt-worthy. Thus he emerges, a self-proclaimed ‘Superman’, free to do as he pleases.

In truth, man’s true emancipation is a restoration of the human world and human relationships to himself.

What if this article was about the theory? That becomes a brief. Forges the background, relevant to context but ultimately, all it is, is information. Those banal split-screen dishwasher and soap ads, anyone?

How about if this article were about the truth? Now in insight territory, it’s relevant and compelling but doesn’t translate into something you’d hold on to for life. We keep rattling about all the films and bands we’ve ever loved, but how many ads can we recount 10 years on?

The likely, most readable section of this is where there are stories worth sharing or learning from. Never heard of ‘em? You might be compelled to get your hands on them now.

That’s an act. Doesn’t need fancy marketing jargon to explain itself – it just is. It just is what people want to watch, read, hear.

Compared to the magnum acts that people are naturally drawn to, our work is a gross inconvenience. As we continue to remember our place in the world, I live in hope that one day, we can stop at “not ads” altogether. “Create Acts”, then, it is.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETBrandEquity.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETBrandEquity.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.